


A flint and a fire

by NegativeBlue



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Ficlet, Future Fic, Post Operation Mongoose, if anything is earned by now it's a hug between Regina and Emma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-16
Updated: 2015-05-16
Packaged: 2018-03-30 18:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3946522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NegativeBlue/pseuds/NegativeBlue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the future, after too many months of fruitless searches they finally track down Merlin. In order to remove the darkness from Emma however, he needs Regina's help as well.</p><p>(repost from my tumblr mini-fic)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A flint and a fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Antti](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antti/gifts).



> For my beta and best friend, Antti.

The last wisps of magic float away from her fingers and Regina collapses to her knees with a whimper. The hard packed earth is cold beneath her fingertips but she needs something to anchor herself to. She takes deep breaths but her head still spins and the black spots in her vision refuse to disappear.

Using what little strength she has left she cranes her head up and glances towards the other side of the clearing where Merlin is standing. He’s taking deep laboured breaths and the staff he is leaning on shakes in his grasp. He notices her looking his way though and the nod he gives her makes her close her eyes in relief.

It worked, she thinks. It worked and tentative embers of joy and happiness spread themselves throughout her body, leaving a lazy warmth in their wake. But they vanish just as fast as they had appeared and the chill from the ground creeps up her arms again.

She twists her body enough to see the rest of the clearing. To see Emma being surrounded by her parents, hugging them in turn. She watches, with a lump in her throat, as Emma smiles at Hook and launches herself into his arms. And then she turns away again.

The ground is still so very cold beneath her fingers as she crawls towards a nearby tree and reclines against it. She rests and thinks of the days, weeks, months gone by. Of the nights spent pouring over books with Belle, Hook and the Charmings in the library. Of the times they had been forced to use the dagger to summon Emma. Dead end after dead end and the heartrending ache she had felt at the thought of Emma never being freed of the curse of the Dark One.

Her head lolls back against the tree as she holds up one of her hands. It feels more numb now. But Regina thinks that numbness set in a long time ago. From the moment Emma disappeared. Like a piece of her was missing. Even with the knowledge that Emma was now free of the darkness, she can’t quite get the images out of her head. She can still taste the devastation she had felt that day on the tip of her tongue. That very first moment when she realized what Emma had done, and how much she had sacrificed. And ever since the only thing she could think about was to find a way to bring her back from the darkness.

“Regina?”

Her name being called out, doesn’t register to her at first. But she would recognise that voice anywhere, even with the broken way Emma had uttered her name.

“Hi.”

She flicks her eyes up with difficulty and registers the way Emma’s lips wobble, as if she meant to say more than that, but couldn’t. Emma’s hair is a tangled mess, her clothes streaked with dirt and Regina swallows when she notices the tears that are slowly running down her face.

“Hey,” she manages to mumble back, though she isn’t quite able to force a smile to her face. Much like she tries in vain to scramble her body into an upright position only to fall back down again.

But then Emma bends down and grabs her hands and for a moment everything twists and dances around her. Two strong arms envelop her and she lets out a shuddery breath before burying herself into Emma’s shoulder.

She doesn’t know how long they stand there. With the entire world falling away around them. But later she recalls how Emma had repeated the same words over and over, “thank you, thank you,” like a mantra. An affirmation of how far they had come.

Later, she recalls how her fingers had still felt numb, but inside the fire burned bright again.


End file.
